The Falcons will host the West African opponents on February 14 at the Abuja National Stadium while they will head to Freetown, Sierra Leone a fortnight later for the reverse fixture.

The winner of the encounter will be a game away from qualifying for the 2014 biennial continent football fiesta holding in Namibia which doubles as qualifiers for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.

The top three finishers at the Namibia 2014 AWC will automatically qualify to represent Africa in Canada.

Okon,who initially opted to bring in 45 players to camp in preparation for the crucial AWC tie, said he has to key into the programme of the football house by scaling down the number of invited players.

“I thought I could have brought in 45 players, at least, to give me a wider window to take a second look at the players since there is the possibility of drop in form as the season is at rest at the moment.

“But the NFF technical committee’s directive has corrected that, as we’ll now work with the 30-man squad when we resume on January 6.

“However, the elimination by substitution approach will still apply as any player who fails to measure up will be eliminated and substituted immediately.

“The encounter against Sierra Leone on February 14 in Abuja is crucial and we must work very hard to obtain a comfortable result so as to make the second leg very easy.

“We want to qualify for the AWC in Namibia as well as excel to win a World Cup spot, so the work is enormous and only the best will be given the final nod,” said the Rivers Angels gaffer to supersport.com.

Aggregate winners of the two-legged tie are most likely to confront the winners of the tie between Rwanda and Kenya in May and June for a final spot in the 2014 Namibia AWC football event.